Why not empower knowledge workers and lifelong learners to develop their own environments?

In industrial and educational practice, learning environments are designed and implemented by experts from many different fields, reaching from traditional software development and product management to pedagogy and didactics. Workplace and lifelong learning, however, implicate that learners are more self-motivated, capable, and self-confident in achieving their goals and, consequently, tempt to consider that certain development tasks can be shifted to end-users in order to facilitate a more flexible, open, and responsive learning environment. With respect to streams like end-user development and opportunistic design, this paper elaborates a methodology for user-driven environment design for action-based activities. Based on a former research approach named 'Mash-Up Personal Learning Environments'(MUPPLE) we demonstrate how workplace and lifelong learners can be empowered to develop their own environment for collaborating in learner networks and which prerequisites and support facilities are necessary for this methodology

A rapid prototyping tool to produce 360° video-based immersive experiences enhanced with virtual/multimedia elements

While the popularity of virtual reality (VR) grows in a wide range of application contexts – e.g. entertainment, training, cultural heritage and medicine –, its economic impact is expected to reach around 15bn USD, by the year of 2020. Within VR field, 360° video has been sparking the interest of development and research communities. However, editing tools supporting 360° panoramas are usually expensive and/or demand programming skills and/or advanced user knowledge. Besides, application approaches to quickly and intuitively set up such 360° video-based VR environments complemented with diverse types of parameterizable virtual assets and multimedia elements are still hard to find. Thereby, this paper aims to propose a system specification to simply and rapidly configure immersive VR environments composed of surrounding 360° video spheres that can be complemented with parameterizable multimedia contents – namely 3D models, text and spatial sound –, whose behavior can be either time-range or user-interaction dependent. Moreover, a preliminary prototype that follows a substantial part of the previously mentioned specification and implements the enhancement of 360° videos with time-range dependent virtual assets is presented. Preliminary tests evaluating usability and user satisfaction were also carried out with 30 participants, from which encouraging results were achieved.This work was financed by project “CHIC – Cooperative Holistic View on Internet and Content” (N° 24498), financed the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through COMPETE2020 - the Operational Programme for Competitiveness and Internationalisation (OPCI)

Foundry: Hierarchical Material Design for Multi-Material Fabrication

We demonstrate a new approach for designing functional material definitions for multi-material fabrication using our system called Foundry. Foundry provides an interactive and visual process for hierarchically designing spatially-varying material properties (e.g., appearance, mechanical, optical). The resulting meta-materials exhibit structure at the micro and macro level and can surpass the qualities of traditional composites. The material definitions are created by composing a set of operators into an operator graph. Each operator performs a volume decomposition operation, remaps space, or constructs and assigns a material composition. The operators are implemented using a domain-specific language for multi-material fabrication; users can easily extend the library by writing their own operators. Foundry can be used to build operator graphs that describe complex, parameterized, resolution-independent, and reusable material definitions. We also describe how to stage the evaluation of the final material definition which in conjunction with progressive refinement, allows for interactive material evaluation even for complex designs. We show sophisticated and functional parts designed with our system.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (1138967)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (1409310)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (1547088)National Science Foundation (U.S.). Graduate Research Fellowship ProgramMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Undergraduate Research Opportunities Progra

From Keyword Search to Exploration: How Result Visualization Aids Discovery on the Web

A key to the Web's success is the power of search. The elegant way in which search results are returned is usually remarkably effective. However, for exploratory search in which users need to learn, discover, and understand novel or complex topics, there is substantial room for improvement. Human computer interaction researchers and web browser designers have developed novel strategies to improve Web search by enabling users to conveniently visualize, manipulate, and organize their Web search results. This monograph offers fresh ways to think about search-related cognitive processes and describes innovative design approaches to browsers and related tools. For instance, while key word search presents users with results for specific information (e.g., what is the capitol of Peru), other methods may let users see and explore the contexts of their requests for information (related or previous work, conflicting information), or the properties that associate groups of information assets (group legal decisions by lead attorney). We also consider the both traditional and novel ways in which these strategies have been evaluated. From our review of cognitive processes, browser design, and evaluations, we reflect on the future opportunities and new paradigms for exploring and interacting with Web search results

WinkBall, ViewTalk and QR Touch TV White Paper

The following internal document details a summary of the impact and technical achievements undertaken in the development of three companies, WinKBall, ViewTalk, QR Touch TV . The technical details contained within this white paper was submitted to the UK government and I've been recognised as innovative and worthy of UK Government funding

Proceedings of the 3rd Workshop on Social Information Retrieval for Technology-Enhanced Learning

Learning and teaching resource are available on the Web - both in terms of digital learning content and people resources (e.g. other learners, experts, tutors). They can be used to facilitate teaching and learning tasks. The remaining challenge is to develop, deploy and evaluate Social information retrieval (SIR) methods, techniques and systems that provide learners and teachers with guidance in potentially overwhelming variety of choices. The aim of the SIRTEL’09 workshop is to look onward beyond recent achievements to discuss specific topics, emerging research issues, new trends and endeavors in SIR for TEL. The workshop will bring together researchers and practitioners to present, and more importantly, to discuss the current status of research in SIR and TEL and its implications for science and teaching

Project Learn: The Development and Assessment of a Cross-Platform Tutor Finder

creation of an online tutor finder application, called "Project Learn", aimed to address the difficulty in finding a tutor for any subject in today's fast-paced world. To achieve this, the study utilized a developmental research design to create an application that connects students with qualified tutors. Students can view a tutor's background and the subjects they teach before choosing the best fit for their needs. To evaluate the system's technical quality, a survey was conducted with 20 end-users and 10 IT-experts. The survey was based on ISO 25010 software quality standards and included components such as functional suitability, reliability, usability, performance efficiency, security, compatibility, portability, and maintainability. The survey results indicated that both the end-users and IT-experts rated the system above 3.26, which equates to a "very acceptable" grade. This suggests that the system's overall internal and external performance exhibited consistency and met the compliance requirements. However, there is still room for improvement to better serve the needs of its users. The success of the development and assessment of the online tutor finder application demonstrates the potential impact it can have in connecting students with qualified tutors. The study's use of a developmental research design and adherence to ISO 25010 software quality standards ensured the technical quality of the system. With further improvements, the application can continue to make a significant impact in helping students find the right tutor to achieve academic success

Andando pela estrada da memória: uma abordagem de realidade virtual para suporte ao estudo do ajuste mnemónico para a contaminação

Biologically, humans have evolved to adapt against pathogens but, since fighting them can have negative implication to the body, a set of mechanisms have evolved towards avoiding contamination, called the Behavioral Immune System (BIS). To better understand the BIS, Experimental Psychology studies its impact by conducting experiments where a participant is exposed to several objects some of which are presented as having been in contact with a source of contamination (e.g., a sick person).To ensure the safety of the participants, these experiments typically rely on photographs of the objects and individuals and on background stories establishing the connection between both, which requires some imagination effort, from the participant, and affects the realism of the experiment. To move the research on BIS and memory into a potentially more ecologically-valid setting, the current work proposes a Virtual Reality (VR) based approach where 360º videos are used as stimuli, during the experiments. To this end, a set of tools were devised to support creating and cataloging videos, and to configure and control their presentation to the participant, in the virtual environment. At an early stage, a partial version of the platform served as grounds for a pilot study aiming to assess the overall adequateness of the proposal and validate acquisition parameters for the stimuli. The positive outcomes of this study informed the development of the complete Experiment Support System and, at its current stage, results from an evaluation with ten users show a good level of usability. Considering that the proposed system already supports the implementation of the designed experimental protocol, it establishes a promising ground for further evolving the research regarding the Mnemonic Tuning for Contamination.Biologicamente, os seres humanos evoluíram para se adaptarem contra os agentes patogénicos, mas, uma vez que combatê-los pode ter implicações negativas no corpo, um conjunto de mecanismos evoluiu para evitar a contaminação, chamado Sistema Imunológico Comportamental (BIS). Para melhor compreender o BIS, a Psicologia Experimental estuda o seu impacto através da realização de experiências em que um participante é exposto a vários objetos, alguns dos quais são apresentados como tendo estado em contacto com uma fonte de contaminação (por exemplo, uma pessoa doente). Para garantir a segurança dos participantes, estas experiências normalmente contam com fotografias dos objetos e indivíduos e em histórias de fundo que estabelecem a ligação entre ambos, o que requer algum esforço de imaginação, do participante, e afeta o realismo da experiência. Para mover a pesquisa sobre o BIS e a memória para um cenário potencialmente mais válido ecologicamente, o trabalho atual propõe uma abordagem baseada em Realidade Virtual (VR) onde vídeos de 360º são usados como estímulos, durante as experiências. Para tal, foi concebido um conjunto de ferramentas para apoiar a criação e catalogação de vídeos, e para configurar e controlar a sua apresentação ao participante, no ambiente virtual. Numa fase inicial, uma versão parcial da plataforma serviu de base a um estudo piloto com o objetivo de avaliar a adequação global da proposta e validar os parâmetros de aquisição para os estímulos. Os resultados positivos deste estudo informaram o desenvolvimento do sistema completo de suporte a experiências e, na sua fase atual, uma avaliação com dez utilizadores mostrou um bom nível de usabilidade. Tendo em conta que o sistema proposto já apoia a implementação do protocolo experimental concebido, estabelece um terreno promissor para uma maior evolução da investigação do ajuste mnemónico para a contaminação.Mestrado em Engenharia de Computadores e Telemátic

Maps of Lessons Learnt in Requirements Engineering

Both researchers and practitioners have emphasized the importance of learning from past experiences and its consequential impact on project time, cost, and quality. However, from the survey we conducted of requirements engineering (RE) practitioners, over 70\% of the respondents stated that they seldom use RE lessons in the RE process, though 85\% of these would use such lessons if readily available. Our observation, however, is that RE lessons are scattered, mainly implicitly, in the literature and practice, which obviously, does not help the situation. We, therefore, present ``maps” of RE lessons which would highlight weak (dark) and strong (bright) areas of RE (and hence RE theories). Such maps would thus be: (a) a driver for research to ``light up” the darker areas of RE and (b) a guide for practice to benefit from the brighter areas. To achieve this goal, we populated the maps with over 200 RE lessons elicited from literature and practice using a systematic literature review and survey. The results show that approximately 80\% of the elicited lessons are implicit and that approximately 70\% of the lessons deal with the elicitation, analysis, and specification RE phases only. The RE Lesson Maps, elicited lessons, and the results from populating the maps provide novel scientific groundings for lessons learnt in RE as this topic has not yet been systematically studied in the field